Free Wolf's Oath (After the Crash 3.25) by Maddy Barone Page A

of quiet contentment and violent delight.
    Her voice strengthened. “Besides, I don’t have anything here. You know, my toothbrush, clean clothes for tomorrow, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”
    “Taye has extra toothbrushes on hand. I’ll bring you one.”
    She hooked the longer side of her hair behind her ear. “Des, you’re not listening to me. I won’t have sex with you tonight.”
    Her scent, sweet but tinged with something too close to fear, softened him. “All right. I was only teasing you.” He reached his hand to her cheek, slowly and cautiously, as if she were a wild animal he didn’t want to spook, and stroked his hand down her face to rest on her shoulder. Her face was soft, like a velvety rose petal, her shoulder strong. “I would never force you. You know that, don’t you?”
    “I…” She looked directly at his face, studying him for a long moment. “Yeah.”
    He told his agitated wolf to shut up. He wasn’t going to take anything from her she didn’t give him willingly. “Okay, I’ll go out to the storage shed and get a toothbrush. While I’m gone, you can change for bed. My clothes are in the closet. Take what you like.”
    “I’m not tiny like Sherry, but anything of yours will still be way too big on me.”
    He shrugged. “Loose is good for sleeping, right?” And seeing her in something that belonged to him might calm the wolf. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. We can talk then. Get to know each other better, before we go to sleep.” He turned to the door, and paused, looking back at her in the golden glow of the oil lamp. “Connie, we’ll sleep together tonight, like we did last night. No sex unless you say so.”
    Out in the hall he took a deep breath and let it out. They were married. Connie hadn’t accepted his mate claim, but in the eyes of the world she belonged to him. It would have to be enough for now.
    From the room across the hall he heard Hawk say, “Hush, sweetness. The kitchen clean up isn’t your worry. The boys will take care of it. Open your legs for me.” And then a deep breathy moan from Renee. At least Hawk was enjoying his wedding night. As he strode down the dark hallway, the rhythmic thumps of lovemaking from the Chief and Lupa’s room did nothing to calm his wolf. He tightened the chokehold he had on the beast and went to fetch a toothbrush for his skittish mate.
     
    Connie wouldn’t have described herself as skittish. Skittish was a prissy word, and Connie wasn’t prissy. She wasn’t stupid either. Sleeping in her jeans would be uncomfortable. She marched to the closet and found three pairs of sweatpants, and two long-sleeved T-shirts and two short-sleeved T-shirts. She picked a pair of sweats and one of the long-sleeved T-shirts. She quickly pulled off her jeans and shirt, and put Des’ clothes on. Looking at them closely told her they weren’t like the knits from her time. It was another reminder that home was gone forever. A few pairs of thick wool socks were neatly rolled in the back of the shelf. They were too big, but she put one pair on anyway. She folded her clothes neatly and put them on an empty shelf in the closet. There was another door, but when she tried to turn the doorknob she found it was either stuck or locked. Probably a nonfunctioning bathroom from the Times Before.
    It was cold in here, as cold as her room back at the Plane Women’s House would be. Last night was the first night she’d woken feeling comfortable in this new world. She might want to keep a little distance from Des, but his body heat was simply too alluring. Not to mention his scent. Having sex with him would be easy. How many times had she privately drooled over that perfect body? But she didn’t want to have meaningless sex ever again.
    She crossed the frigid room to the bed and sat down. In the months after Paul’s death her grief and loneliness had driven her to do stupidly desperate things. Once she’d tried to find comfort in bed with a visiting